Plight of the Part-Time Student, Part I

Oh, part-time student.  How brave you are.  You work hard.  You might be married.  You might have a kid or two.  Yet you continue to reach down and work hard to find balance and to keep moving forward.  I salute you. 

Not only do I salute you, I also empathize!  Yes, I am a part-time student, I’m married, and I do try to find that balance of real-life and student-ism (is that a term?) on a daily basis. 

This is my second year as a part-time student and I think I may have developed a few nuggets of wisdom I can share. Here are 3 tips for the part-time student (already at Penn or thinking of coming to Penn) that I’ve learned over the past year + : 

1. Don’t wait to read until the night before! - You almost always will be more tired that night than you anticipate. And if you fall asleep before you’re done your work, you’re toast (because of your job the next day) unless you wake up ridiculously early to finish. So plan ahead...no cramming! 

2. Part-time Penn student still means you’re a Penn student! 

- I spent a majority of my first year as a student not really thinking I was “worthy” enough to participate in some of the extracurricular activities on campus simply because I was a part-timer. But that’s a terrible attitude to have! You put in hard work in each class like the full-timers, and at the end of the day, you’re going to need to complete the same amount of classes that the full-timers do. So enjoy Penn. There’s a lot here to enjoy. 

3. Try to spend some time in the GSE building 

- Another drawback to being a part-time student is that it’s highly possible that the only time you see the inside of the GSE building is when you have class, when you’re meeting your advisor, and when you’re on the GSE website! I implore you to try to take a little bit of time to be in GSE when you’re not in class or meeting your advisor so that you can feel like you’re part of a big home yet small community. There’s a nice lounge area on the first floor and the recently opened “Graduate’s Cafe,” so don’t be afraid to grab a nice cup of brew and relax.